Two Scud missiles were fired toward Israel from the western Iraq about five hours apart Saturday night and early Sunday morning, causing neither casualties nor damage, an Israel Defense Force spokesman said.
Alerts were sounded at 8 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. local time.
The missiles, carrying conventional warheads, apparently landed in open areas away from towns or villages. They brought to 30 the number of Scuds fired at Israel since the first slammed into a Tel Aviv slum on Jan. 18.
According to the IDF spokesman, Gen. Nachman Shai, they were the ninth and 10th Iraqi missile attacks on Israel.
The IDF refused to say whether Patriot anti-missile batteries were fired or to pinpoint the area of impact of the overnight missiles. U.S. military officials in Saudi Arabia indicated that the Patriots had not been fired.
The IDF spokesman did say, however, that the Scuds landed in what the civil defense authorities designate “Area 5.” The area extends north and east of Greater Tel Aviv and includes part of the Samaria region of the West Bank.
The last two missiles, fired Jan. 28 and 31, landed in the same general area near Palestinian villages without causing casualties or damage.
There were unconfirmed reports in the foreign news media Sunday that the second of the two missiles actually landed in Jordan. That would be ironic inasmuch as Jordan, while officially remaining neutral, has been supportive of Iraq.
CHEMICAL ARMS CAPABILITY ASSUMED
Jordan Television quoted denials by Palestine Liberation Organization sources that any Iraqi missiles had landed in the administered territories.
According to those sources, Saddam Hussein would not allow his missiles to harm Palestinians.
The latest Scud attacks followed a warning Friday by IDF Chief of Staff Dan Shomron that although greatly impaired by allied bombing, Iraq still has the capability to fire missiles into Israel.
Shomron, interviewed on radio and television, responded to public criticism of the IDF’s insistence that civilians take shelter in gas-proof rooms in their homes when an air raid alert sounds, instead of in underground bomb shelters.
Although the underground shelters offer better protection against the high-explosive conventional warheads the Iraqi Scuds have carried so far, a poison gas attack would pose much greater danger, Shomron stressed.
He said Israelis will have to live with the uncertainty about Iraq’s chemical weapons potential until the end of the war.
He said the IDF’s assumption is that Iraq may have succeeded in developing chemical warheads for its missiles. “Inefficient and primitive as they may be, they must be taken seriously.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
